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Sunday, December 4, 2016

The Futsal competition at the 2016 Arctic Winter Games concluded with the final of the Intermediate Female competition, which saw holders Sápmi - who represent the Sami people of northern Scandinavia and who were taking part in their sole Futsal competition - take on Yukon. The gold Ulu (named after the ulu, a traditional cutting implement used by Inuit, Indians and Aleut across the Arctic) was first played for in 2004 in Wood Buffalo, Alberta, and was won by Alaska. Since Sápmi first entered the competition in 2008, they have only lost two matches, the last being the 2010 final when they lost to Alaska in the western Albertan city of Grande Prairie.

There was just the one scoreless draw in the 2016 tournament (in fact, it was the sole scoreless draw across the entire Futsal gathering), when Alaska and the Northwest Territories met in the group stage, but there were a number of chances for both teams, and the NWT's Tamelka Steinwand came closest to breaking the deadlock when her shot hit the post late on in the second half.

NWT then collapsed in their following group game, when they lost 10:0 to holders Sápmi, for whom Sofie Sørensen and Kristin Hamnvik scored hat-tricks. Sápmi then went on to thrash Alaska 5:0 in their next match, with Sørensen netting another four goals. Sápmi went on to win all of their group games in convincing fashion, apart from a nine-goal thriller against Yukon. (Both teams had already qualified for the semi-finals by this time.) The Canadians scored in the first minute before Sápmi scored twice in twenty seconds in the fifth minute. It was 3:2 at half-time, and Sápmi always had their noses in front in the second half, but Yukon kept coming back at them, which potentially bode well for an exciting final - if both teams made it that far.

They both had to first get through their semi-finals, which they did with the mimimum of fuss: Sápmi's Sofie Sørensen scoring all of her side's goals in a 4:0 win over Greenland, though Yukon were made to work a little harder against the Northwest Territories in their match, which they won by 3 goals to 1. Greenland went on to win the third-place play-off 4:2 against NWT, with Nivi Mathiassen and Olina Kristiansen both scoring twice in a hard-fought encounter. Oddly, the Northwest Territories had scored just one goal during the group phase, but quadrupled their tally in the knockout and play-off stages.

So, all eyes were on the final, which brought the curtain down onthe Futsal event at the Arctic Winter Games as a whole, a game which Sápmi were expected to win, and win well. They had been scoring goals with abandon, especially Sørensen, who had scored at least a hat-trick in every game so far. Yukon, though, had other ideas. They were not a team which scored bucketfuls of goals, but they did possess a determined defence and a tenacious attitude, exemplified by the likes of Judith "Mikaela" Ponsioen, who had scored in every game in the tournament up to the final, Jamie-Joe Hudson and Thea Carey.

In spite of Sápmi dominating possession, both goalkeepers were rarely tested bue to some excellent defending (and a willingness to counter-attack) from their team-mates, but when they were, they excelled, especially Yukon's diminutive shot-stopper Isabel Magsucang, who was also quick to put her team back on the attack with her basketball-style throw-outs. One to watch for the future. However, she was powerless to stop Sápmi's Kristin Hamnvik from stealing in to tap home from close range to score the winner half-way through the second half. Both defences deserve praise, especially that of Yukon, who dealt admirably with almost everything thrown at them.

Although Sørensen was comparatively subdued during the final, she had more than proved her worth to the team throughout the tournament, as had Hamnvik, goalkeeper Ann-Heidi Utsi and team members of the calibre of Jenny Marie Slettli. It was a real team effort and a deserved victory for the Scandinavians, who continued their domination of the competition. Many of the Sápmi team, such as Erika Wingstad and Elsa Tannerdal will still be eligible to play at the next edition of the Arctic Winter Games in Fort Smith/Hay River in 2018; will they continue their reign or will a new name appear on the honours-list?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to Doris Landry, the recently-retired secretary of the Arctic Winter Games International Committee, for kindly allowing the reproduction of the above statistical information for the 2016 AWG, which is available via the following website, and for her general assistance:

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